Sue and Lee's Vegetable Allotment pages, detailing all that we've been doing on our allotments, from clearing the 8' tall weeds that they were covered in when we started with our first plot in October 2006, through to where we are today, with 2 neighbouring full sized productive organic vegetable growing plots, 2 apiaries and 6 Beehives!!

FYI

Clicking on any of the pictures will open them at full size in the browser window, which means you will have to use the 'back' button to return to the main pages, whereas clicking to the left or right of any picture will open them in a new window, if you fancy a closer look at any of the piccies we've posted! We've included a Google Earth satelite picture of our plots and this years planting plan at the bottom of the page, next to each other. If you choose the Earth view on the satelite image you can rotate the image until it is lined up with the planting plan, then use the arrows in the plan to scroll from Plot 2 to Plot 1.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Computer Crash

Had a major computer crash (whilst trying to update windows) on Thursday, so Im in the process of trying to reinstall evrything aswell as harvest and process the veg and do the bee inspections / harvest honey and jar it up, so please bear with me if the blog updates arent to their usual level! Im unable to download the piccies from the camera atm, but hopefully should have it all back to normal tomorrow!

I've been using some of the produce to make some of this wonderful sweet pickle, I made a batch last year, very branston like and absolutely gorgeous, this year Im making about 5 times as much!

Combine all the ingredients except the colouring in a large saucepan and bring to the boil; reduce the heat to a simmer.

Simmer until the swede is cooked through but still firm (about 11⁄2 to 2 hours).

Then add the liquid colouring until the colour is dark brown.

Spoon into warm sterilized jars and seal.

Leave for at least 3 weeks to let the flavours mature.

Ok, I made it to the plot to harvest today, in the pouring rain, got a load of stuff, 20lb of toms, 15lb of spuds, 4 sweetcorn, 4 summer squashes, 5lb of runner beans, 2lb of french beans, 4 peppers, 12 chillies, 18 courgettes, a load of broccolli, 2 small caulies, 8 turnips, 2 swedes, a full car full!

Next years costs have already started, £59.50 for seeds (Wyevales sale), £7 for onion sets (3 varieties, 200+ sets in total), £12 for dual plum tree, so a total spend for 2011 of £88.50 so far, with only rent and subs + seed spuds to come (should be a total of £120 ish to add), so unless we decide to undertake any large projects on the plot, next year should be a relatively inexpensive one!
Total Veg Plot Harvests 2010

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About Me

I'm a 40 something yr old woman, married to a great guy, Lee, for the past 12 years, am a practicing Pagan Witch, and enjoy life to its fullest extent! Currently we are both enjoying growing our own veg (on our 2 organic allotments), looking after our 6 colonies of apis melifora (honey bee) and practicing my photography (on my ebay special Canon EOS10D) I work as a store manager for a finance provider, and enjoy reading, writing, cooking, camping and many other things besides! We are both passionate dog owners with many years of experience of providing a loving friendly home to our furbabies.

Beekeeping Links

Satelite picture of our Plots - Google Earth

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Switch to Earth view and drag the north marker round to the 4 'o'clock position to orientate them in the same way as the planting plans! Please note, the satelite picture is from last year, when we had the brassicas where the sweetcorn and squashes are this year!

Planting Plan 2010

Use the arrows to switch between Plots 2 (the left hand plot) and Plot 1 (the right hand plot)